


Tales of the Society: The Azure Age Chapter 7

by LadyofI



Series: Tales of the Society [7]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-31
Updated: 2019-07-31
Packaged: 2020-07-28 00:57:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 18,928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20055424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyofI/pseuds/LadyofI
Summary: With Clusterfuck defeated and Quantum temporarily out of the picture, the Society needs to move bases again.





	1. A Love that Burns

_“And so, the Crimson Society finally began the long, slow process of turning the tables on the Azure Initiative,” Eli commented proudly. “With three mission successes under our belt, the Azures’ biggest weapon neutralized, and their future plans snatched from their forward base, we had plenty of time to prepare for the next big step.”_

_“Right, and that’s when the rest of us came into the picture, isn’t it?” JoJo’s question earned an affirmative nod from Scafe. “Gotta say, I’m glad I wasn’t a part of that Clusterfuck nonsense.”_

_“I’m still kinda _pissed_ that I missed out on that fight,” Dante commented wryly. “Sounds a lot more fun than playing _Metal Gear Solid: Robomon Edition_\- OOWWW!!” He yelped in pain as a black-furred claw buried itself in the side of his face; its owner said nothing, but the glare she directed at Dante spoke volumes._

_“That’s…debatable…but the fact was that we had a _lot_ to do after Clusterfuck was taken out of the picture,” Brian noted. “First, we needed Cipher’s information to plot our next move…and more importantly, we had to move our base **again** to stop the house calls from the Azure fucks…hence our current digs.” He gestured around the room for emphasis before his gaze landed on Irene. “Irene was also gone most of this time, so this is gonna be news to her too.”_

_“Speaking of which, Irene…where _were_ you all that time?” Scafe asked curiously. “We really could’ve used your help finding this new location.”_

_Irene regarded the dragon-man casually, but the slight flutter of her wings betrayed a hint of unease. Tsuneo passed her a glance, his concern evident even with the mask hiding his face…but she only shook her head placatingly as she made to stand._

_“I guess I owe you an explanation for that, huh…” She paused to let her wings come to rest, once again leaving silence aside from the fireplace. “Fine, fine…here’s what I was busy with.”_

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

## Tales of the Society - The Azure Age

### Chapter 7.1: A Love That Burns

It was hard to say whether Irene’s eyes, wings, or thoughts were moving faster as she fluttered away from yet another world chunk. She’d been away from the Society for two days now, plumbing the Nexus Underground for something special; something she had thought of after a _literal_ nuclear meltdown.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After gaining Brian’s implicit agreement for some time to herself in the wake of the Clusterfuck Attack, Irene had returned to her new pre-Society abode: a laboratory in the very heart of a volcano. Having learned from her past folly with Amethyst, she had taken pains to ensure that her new “workshop” was completely secure both within and without - most notably, it was completely encased with the best blast shielding she could find and cobble together. As a result, the lab was utterly impervious to shocks, heat, and explosions; impervious to volcanic activity, projects gone awry…and its owner’s rather destructive breakdowns.

Right now, it was being tested with the latter.

“Of _course_ I fell in love with someone like him!” Irene screamed as yet another of her thrown experiments blew up against the nearest wall. “Never mind the fact that he’s undead, a superior officer, _AND_ has some unholy _thing_ inside him that nearly killed me! Nooo…even if _all that_ was okay, the simple fact is that he’s fucking _literally_ immortal and I’m **not!**” Tiring of throwing things for a moment, she summoned her rocket launcher, firing at the wall to punctuate her ranting.

“He’d outlive me by leaps and bounds-”

_BANG!_

“-and I’m godsdamn _certain_-”

_BOOM!_

“-he’s not out for anything that could end before he does!”

_KABLAM!_

“I’m just the fucking _best!_ At! RELATIONSHIPS!!!”

_POW! KERBLAM! **KA-FWOOM!**_

The last series of explosions climaxed with Irene hurling her entire rocket launcher at the much-abused wall, causing a massive burst of flames. After a moment to catch her breath, she grabbed another beaker, ready to throw it…only to pause mid-swing as a new thought came to mind. 

“…But maybe there _is_ a way to turn this all around…” she murmured to herself. “After all…if all of _this_ is okay, then the ‘mortality gap’ is the only real problem left, huh...” A small smile came to her face as she put the beaker away, her black wings returning to their normal red. “Good gods, I hope this works.” With that, she portalled out of her lab, not paying a second thought to the mess of exploded chemicals and glass shards behind her.

She had much bigger plans to attend to.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After portaling to the nearest tunnel to the Underground - and immediately regretting her decision to leave behind such a mess in her lab - Irene focused on finding the first piece of her objective. She had scanned the chunks close to the Surface for the past 10 hours, looking for a place she can remember…only to be drawn out of her thoughts when one chunk caught her eye: a rather garish piece of land with a surprising amount of visible violence.

“Well…that’s not normal…even by _my_ standards.” Curious, Irene flew in closer and landed in quite the saccharine environment. The moment she saw it, it hit her like a rushing wave.

“Whimsyshire…huh. Strange how it ended up this high up…perhaps the beasts here aren’t quite so danger- Oh shit!” Her pondering was interrupted by the need to dodge a unicorn as it nearly gored her with its horn. “…Orrr this place is _very_ dangerous and I need to keep my guard up.” As she summoned Curie to her hands, she got a better look at the unicorn and paled; large chunks of flesh were gone from its body. _Something tells me that’s not normal, even for this saccharine deathtrap,_ she thought.

Now on high alert, Irene began working her way deeper into the chunk. As she expected, she had to fight her way through quite a few lethally-cute monsters; giant flowers, teddy bears, and more unicorns all met explosive ends at the barrels of Curie. However, Irene noted that for every creature she had to fight, several more seemed to ignore her entirely, instead running past her towards a commotion up ahead.

Just before she could wonder what was going on, Irene found the source of the ruckus: a truly massive melee of disproportionately powerful teddy bears, flowers and unicorns. At the center of the crowd, she saw bursts of fire and flashes of rainbow; deciding that everyone’s attention was suitably diverted, she took flight to get a better look at the source.

_…Welp._ That’s _not something you see every day._

Contrary to her initial assessment, the crowd of creatures below her was focused entirely on a single, dark green teddy bear - one that seemed to be holding its own against the army arrayed against it. It wielded a beam of rainbow light like a sword, but Irene’s eyes were drawn to the object embedded in its forehead; a glowing red crystal, protruding like a misshapen horn. The briefest shudder went through her body; she knew all too well what _that_ was.

“So that green one got Diablo’s Soulstone embedded in its skull, picked up a literal rainbow sword and started killing everything in sight…myself excluded.” Irene glanced down, confirming that she hadn’t been spotted; evidently, the rest of the chunk’s denizens were entirely focused on slaying their demon-possessed peer. “I guess I can get rid of these guys and……hope the corrupted teddy bear doesn’t decide to kill me next?” She bit back a curse at her less-than-stellar logic as she checked to make sure Curie was primed for action. “Gods, either I’m trying to become immortal or I have the _single biggest death wish_ in the Nexus.”

Taking careful aim and giving the lone defender a wide berth, Irene started circling the crowd, blowing away large chunks with explosive buckshot while the corrupted bear destroyed the crowd around it. Their combined efforts thinned the ranks in mere moments; soon, the survivors were fleeing from a ring of fireballs.

With the living population of the battlefield down to two, the green bear finally looked up at its surprise ally as she landed nearby. Dropping its rainbow blade, it slowly wandered over; despite stumbling a few times, it never stopped staring up at her. It said nothing - _never met a teddy bear known for its conversational skills,_ Irene thought - but it seemed to be presenting that shard in its head with a look that practically screamed “please get this thing off of me.” 

“So that’s why you spared me,” Irene said warily. “You want me to pull this shard out of you?”

The bear nodded weakly, its entire body trembling as if it was resisting the urge to attack her next. _It probably_ is, _all things considered…_ Irene’s wings went a shade or two paler at the thought, but she gathered her resolve and knelt before the bear.

“Well, here goes nothing…” Sucking a breath through her teeth, Irene reached towards the bear’s forehead. The creature’s trembling intensified, as if fearing for its life…_is that the host, or its “tenant”, I wonder?_ Deciding to go all-in, she quickly seized the crystal, yanked it out, and hurled it away in one swift motion; the last thing she wanted was any urges to put it in _her_ forehead instead. After a few moments, the bear seemed to calm back down, regarding the carnage around it…and it seemed nonplussed. Given what Irene knew about Whimsyshire, it was no surprise that its denizens had no fear towards death…but now, this one just looked lost.

“You know, you’re kinda cute when you’re not possessed by a Prime Evil…and it’d be nice to have something cuddly at the HQ…” In an instant, Irene knew that she’d added a new item to her to-do list. “Hey…wanna come with me, little guy?”

The bear stared at the butterfly-winged woman for a moment, its head cocked to one side. After a moment, it raised its arms, as if asking to be picked up.

_That’s a yes~_ With a slight smile, Irene picked up her new companion and flew off. “Great; I have a feeling I’ll probably need the extra hands...” Once she was off the chunk, she resumed her train of thought where she’d left off. “Now...where do I find a Philosopher’s Stone…?” 

Once again, Irene’s thoughts were interrupted - this time, by her passenger wiggling in her arms. It pointed a stubby hand at a totally encased world chunk, presumably taken from below the surface of its home planet. Although Irene was leery of visiting unknown lands, she decided to trust her new companion, flying into the nearest hole in that landmass.

“...Well, this place is all lit up. Like someone was explor… oh, hi, _Terraria_ wasn’t expecting to find you on the Nexus. Especially not like this.” She roamed around, looking at all the multi-colored torches and crystals littering the white stone walls. “Well, I _should_ be able to find a Philosopher’s Stone in this place…in theory…?” Her eyes lighted on a treasure chest, and she beamed as she rushed over to open it. “Well, this could be easier than I tho- oh fuck fuck _fuck!_” Her new companion flew out of her hands as she scrambled backwards in a blind panic - the ‘treasure chest’ had started hopping towards her, revealing a mouthful of jagged fangs under its lid.

“R-Right, Mimics… Forgot about those…” With her shock wearing off, Irene pulled out Sievert with a smirk. “Well, this works out; these things have what I’m looking for!” A few shots from her rocket launcher reduced the Mimic to splinters, causing its treasure to fly out - a simple but sharp dagger. Irene’s disappointment was interrupted when she noticed her new teddy toddling over to pick up the dagger - after a few experimental swings, it nodded to itself and returned to her side with the weapon in hand.

“Well, ‘least you’re armed now… Come on, let’s go bash…more…chests…” Irene trailed off as she walked into a clearing in the cave; a clearing utterly _stuffed_ with treasure chests. Were she more naive, she’d have thought she’d hit the jackpot - as it was, her hands met her temples with a groan of exasperation. 

“…Either I’ve stumbled on a Mimic breeding ground, someone is a _real_ asshole, or _both._” Despite her irritation, Irene gave a familiar wicked smile as she reloaded Sievert. “Welp, time to weed out the Mimics. Loaded chests can’t be blown up…so these are either empty, or my targets!”

With a cackle, the pyromancer started firing rockets into the room. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her companion leaping down to do the same, throwing its new dagger - or at least a magic projection of it - to try and identify the chests closest to her. Seeing the bear’s plan, Irene angled her shots to hit the furthest chests with explosive wrath - about ten minutes later, the few remaining chests were surrounded by scorch marks, splinters of wood and gold, and various pieces of loot.

“Alright, let’s see…” As the teddy dug around one of the unbombed chests, Irene spotted her target: a red gem gleaming amid the wreckage. “Bingo~” Her wings flashed yellow for a moment as she fluttered over and picked up the Philosopher’s Stone.

“Well, that was pretty easy…now I need to make this work for me…” Irene looked between the stone and her own chest. “Gotta embed this near my heart…but how do I do _that?_” She looked back to her new friend as it straightened back up, holding another sharp-looking knife it had pulled from the treasure chest.

“…Sometimes, my own crazy manages to scare me…then again, I’m not the ‘Lady of Insanity’ for no reason…” Steeling herself for what came next, Irene called the bear over as she lay down on the floor. “Hey…I need you to do something for me… Remember when I took that shard out of your head? I need you to put _this_ in my body...” Handing it the Philosopher’s Stone, she pulled up her shirt and pointed to where she was impaled by the demonic black spear. “Alright, center of mass…just embed that stone right there…okay?”

After taking a moment to process the odd request, the bear nodded, raising its new dagger and pointing it at the black scar. Irene was so busy willing herself not to panic-portal away that she didn’t even notice the blade plunging into her body until the pain shot through her, her vision quickly going black…

…only to return a few seconds later - at least from her perspective. She had no idea how long she’d been out, but the pain she’d been feeling for the past few days was gone. She did a quick examination of herself as she sat up; her pulse was still strong and her wings were still on her back, but her skin was completely unmarred save for a bit of dust; the dark marks on her arm and stomach were nowhere to be seen, and even the incision from the knife had vanished without a trace. As far as she could tell, she was as good as new…perhaps even _better._ She could feel strange new magic surging in her veins; unfamiliar, but equal parts comforting and empowering. 

“Huh… It…it worked?” Irene flexed her fingers and wings as she got to her feet, noticing her teddy companion walking over with visible joy. Unbeknownst to Irene, she hadn’t moved for a whole day, and the bear was quite concerned.

“Hey there…thanks for the help,” she said. “I don’t feel different, and yet, I feel like _something_ in me has changed. Let’s just hope I made the right decision…” She knelt down to pick up the bear, noting the large sword slung over its back - _probably picked it up while I was out,_ she thought. “C’mon, little guy. I need to research something before going back to the HQ.”

As she flew out of the world chunk, Irene knew that she still had plenty of work ahead of her. Even with her plan an apparent success, she had a lot of studying to do…to say nothing of cleaning up the mess in her lab. Nevertheless, her heart felt lighter than it had since the Azure Initiative’s last attack on the Society.

“…I’m doing all of this not just for him…but for _all_ of you guys…” she whispered. “For giving me the one thing I never thought I’d have…”

**THE SOCIETY WILL RETURN**


	2. The Enemy of My Enemy is...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With Irene... pre-occupied by her feelings, the remaining Councilmen (save Tsuneo, who's currently healing) decide to interrogate Cipher.

## Tales of the Society - The Azure Age

### Chapter 7.2: The Enemy of my Enemy is...

_ **Last time on Tales of the Society...** _

_The Azure Initiative’s latest assault on the Crimson Society left a bevy of casualties in its wake, Tsuneo chief among them. The NeverDead’s name was tested against both the Crimson Chimera and a mysterious malevolent force seemingly locked within his own mind; he overcame both, but just barely. Now, reconstruction and recovery are the primary focus of the Society folk…save one._

_With Brian’s blessing, Irene fled to her new and improved research lab to vent her frustrations over her growing attraction to Tsuneo, realizing that she’d never have a chance with an immortal like him. However, an idea soon formed, and she set out for the Nexus Underground in search of a very special item. Along the way, she made a new friend in a shard of Whimsyshire: a green teddy bear that proved handy with a knife…_

_…which worked in Irene’s favor when she found what she sought: a Philosopher’s Stone from the Mimic-infested depths of a _Terraria_ world chunk. With the help of her plushie pal, she took the stone into her body, healing it of the scars from her brush with “Darkness Incarnate”…and giving her a power boost to boot! Irene still has much to learn about her new self, so she might not rejoin the Society proper for a while yet…which may be just as well, because her friends are far from idle…  
_

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“Alright guys…” Brian began as he addressed the Society members gathered before him. “I know you ain’t the types to like sugarcoating, so I’ll just get right to it: I’ve got some good news, bad news, _worse_ news, and **horrible** news.” He raised a hand as murmurs went through the crowd, allowing Zeus to manifest an eye to scan the area.

“_So…which news do you lot wish to hear first?_” the Parasite asked, receiving a small chorus of “Good” in return. 

“Well…” Brian began. “The good news is that we’ve dealt a serious blow to the Azure Initiative. With Weiss’s precious Clusterfuck of a mascot-slash-killing machine neutralized and our strike team putting Quantum’s base offline, our HQ is safe and operational once more! However…this is where the bad news comes in…”

“_To put it simply, we are pretty much up Shit Creek without a paddle,_” Zeus explained. “_With the Azure Initiative aware with the location of our headquarters, the chances of them mounting another assault on our asses are higher than a hippie on 4/20…and we’re definitely in no shape to handle it._”

“So we’re not safe here?” B.Nana interjected. “Then we gotta find a new pad before those jerks come back for Round…uh…what round are we on with them?”

“Precisely.” Brian nodded before turning his attention to Tim. “Now…we get to the worse news… Tim, what’s the status on Tsuneo? Is he still comatose, or…?” It was impossible to tell if the tremor in his voice was hopeful or nervous.

“Effectively, yes.” Tim shook his head as Brian visibly sagged. “He’s down for an indeterminate amount of time - not because of physical injury, mind you. That hole in his chest is healing quite swiftly…but I’m not seeing much in terms of brain activity. It must be the work of that beast you mentioned; he probably doesn’t want whatever that was to bring us any harm, so he’s staying down until he gets it under control.”

“So, to put that in perspective, Tsuneo will be down for the count until further notice.” Brian’s summary sent a few murmurs through his audience; a combination of concern for Tsuneo and worry about what else the hybrid Councilman was about to announce.

“Alright, so…if we’re in an unsafe location and Tsuneo is temporarily incapacitated…then what exactly constitutes as the _horrible news?_” Juliet asked, raising an eyebrow as Brian’s frown deepened.

“The structural damage to our HQ has been fully repaired…but our supplies are in bad shape. Thanks to Weiss and Co, we’re almost out of food and water; at best, I’d say it’ll last a week before we’re completely out.”

“Are you saying…we’re going to _starve?!_ Oh god no!” Emily asked, looking on the verge of hysteria. “I can’t handle this! Can’t we just eat Dante? He’ll get better!”

“HEY!” Dante protested. “I may be immortal, but there will be NO consuming of this fine body!”

“No one is eating anybody, Emily!” Athena groaned. “Besides, you had a big enough meal before we lost power.”

“Uuugghh. This is just perfect…” Eli grumbled. “No Tsuneo…no food…and we have to move _again._ I guess even after Clusterfuck’s death and Quantum’s failure; the Initiative _still_ managed to cripple us.”

“By the way, Brian,” Zuula raised a tentacle. “What happened to all those bombs that we’ve gathered?”

“Irene tossed ‘em outside,” Brian answered. “They’re disarmed, but there’s still probably a few around the place… But that’s not important, because I have a _great_ idea about the last two problems Eli just mentioned.”

“And that’d be?” The chinchilla quirked an eyebrow as Brian’s grin widened. “What would solve the food and home problem in a way that the Initiative can’t trace it back to us again?”

“Simple, Eli… We take the most defensible type of landmass on the Nexus…” Brian paused for dramatic effect, but Juliet beat him to the finish.

“An island,” she said. “For once, Spider-Legs has a point; being surrounded by seas on all sides, no one’s entering or exiting airspace or water around us without our say-so, and with our resident explosives expert, SAMs and Depth Charges can cover those fronts perfectly fine. Combine that with Brian’s Warp Pads, we’ll have means to travel to and from the mainland at will… And if we find a big enough island, we could probably grow our _own_ food on it.”

“Ooooh, that’s a GREEEAATTT idea Bri-Bri!” Emily’s words were dripping with sarcasm. “And maybe to solve our food problems, we can subject the Society to an all-coconut diet!”

“Don’t worry, babe,” Brian chuckled. “The bigger the island, the easier it’ll be for us to start a farm!”

“Ooooh! I can handle that!” B.Nana interjected. “This peel may be yellow, but I have the greenest thumb on the Nexus to help support a large and healthy farm!”

“And hell, if it gives me an excuse to keep my skills sharp, I don’t mind scavenging what we can’t grow from below the surface.” Dante smirked a bit at the thought. 

“I second that, Mr. Immortal,” Zuula clicked in joy. “I can finally relive my glory days as the Queen of the Hunt to satisfy our more carnivorous members~”

“So that’s the big and small of it, huh?” Scafe pondered. “Big island, preferably flat, minimal tree coverage, isolated to give us plenty of warning to invaders…”

“So the only question remains is…where do we even begin?” Becky rubbed the back of her head. “I mean…this isn’t like finding an apartment or the way you found this place by accident, right? We’re talking about an _island!_ Not only do we have to take account of the size, but we also have to make sure that the island is fit to use as our new base of operations. And since the Underground doesn’t connect to anything at sea, we’d have to fly there first; who knows how far you’d need to fly to find a suitable island?”

“It’s a good thing we aren’t hurting for flying sorts.” Max nods, gesturing to Scafe and Tim. “Brian’s able to draw up a jetpack if need be, and if Irene wasn’t MIA, her portals would make locating an island much faster…”

“Speaking of which…just where _did_ Miss Firefly even go?” Juliet asked, looking around.

“She…needed time to herself, after Tsuneo was taken down.” Brian’s mood dropped just a bit at the reminder of the pyromancer. “If I know her, she’ll be gone awhile…but she’ll come back, trust me.” With an encouraging nod, he returned his attention to Max. “Now, onto what we can do right now…”

“First things first, we’re going to need a map,” Max began. “With it, we can start pinpointing some contenders.” He paused as Brian winced slightly, sucking a breath through his fangs. “…Brian? Is there a problem, old chap?”

“Yeaaaah…this is where the other shoe drops…” Brian raised his hands in a placating gesture as several glares came his way. “See, the _biggest_ reason I picked an island? The seas aren’t charted out. It means finding us purposely will be extremely difficult…but it _also_ means we can’t actually _find_ islands without flying to them first.” He rubbed the back of his head, grinning sheepishly as Max gave him a blank stare from behind his mask.

“…So, no map?” he asked rhetorically.

“_Yep… No map,_” Zeus responded.

“Oh bother…” Max’s sigh of resignation mirrored the expressions on the rest of the Society.

“ANYWAY!” Brian’s voice was nearly a shout as he tried to keep everyone’s minds on track. “Scafe, Tim, Tavo, get to scouting the ocean for islands. Tavo, I’m sure Gorgoroth can help you in that regard: just get yourself a motorboat and follow him.”

“Can do, Brian!” Tavo nodded. 

“Alright guys! Let’s go find ourselves an island!” Scafe gestured for the Equestrians in the room to follow him as Brian turned to Eli.

“Eli, I think it’s time we bolster the ranks. You know some people; see if we can’t get some more help out here. I’ve already given someone a call myself.”

“I’m on it!” Eli promptly walked out, still favoring his uninjured leg. Dante soon followed after, muttering about making a call of his own, leaving Brian to lead Max down a different hallway.

“That leaves you and me, Max,” he said. “We’ll be getting info from Cipher while everyone else is busy. You’re the one who made the deal with him, and you know his kind, so you’re probably gonna get the most outta him.” He paused to clear some debris out of the hall - the building was still visibly trashed from the Azures’ last “visit”.

“Righty-o, Brian,” Max replied. “Let’s see what our resident hired gun knows about those Azures…”

“I know I can count on you, Max~” Brian smiled, patting the assassin’s shoulder before pushing open a door, revealing a simple room with a dusty table and a few chairs. As expected, the mysterious cat was sitting on the far side of the table, a rather packed looking folder leaning on the leg of his chair.

“Mornin’, Cipher-” Brian’s greeting was met with a raised hand from the cat.

“Spare me the pleasantries,” he glibly remarked, placing the folder on his lap as the two sat down. “I have everything you’re likely to need, so let’s get to it.”

“Well, great to see you’re ready to get things started.” Max nodded as he and Brian sat down. “Alright then, the floor is yours. Tell us everything you have on the Initiative.”

Contrary to his interrogators’ expectations, the feline only offered a grin as he clasped his hands together. “Hmmmm...no. Sorry, gentlemen, but I didn’t agree upon _that_ much; I’ll give you what you _need_; the rest’ll cost you.”

“We aren’t here to make payments, Cipher,” Brian responded, pointing at him. “You have vital information we need, so it would be in your best interest that-”

“It’s alright, Brian; let me handle this,” Max said, his mask-lenses never leaving Cipher. “What you’ve given us will do for now, thank you. Now let’s see what you have.”

“Certainly.” Cipher opened his folder to lift out what appeared to be several thick reams of paper. “For starters, criminal histories and allegations against the Azure Initiative - excluding the deceased parties of Ontario and Prower - current network affiliates via the Neo Empire, and a short list of theorized whereabouts of bases. Fairly standard intel packages.” He concluded his exposition by lightly tossing the clump of papers onto the desk, producing a reverberant _thump_.

“Well, that’s a start…but it’s not what we asked for.” Brian frowned a little at the produced information. “The deal was that you’d have gained some insight on their next move with that recent hack attack we assisted. Anything relating to that?”

Another small grin perked the cat’s mouth upwards as he raised a hand to conceal it. “Right, my apologies; I forgot I’m not dealing with…‘_professionals_’ in this kind of matter.”

“_I can already tell he’s just going to continue stalling,_” Zeus growled. “_I say we **force** the info out of him-_”

“Zeus! Quiet!” Brian barked. “Let the man speak - sorry, Cipher, Zeus ain’t exactly the patient type.”

“Easy, no offense taken,” Cipher replied with a waved hand. “All I’m saying is ‘know your enemy’ - make the most with as little information as you possibly can - in this case being, what…an egotist, an info addict, a stripper, a zealot, a walking, talking wasps’ nest and a knockoff Hulk?”

“We already know these enemies, they used to be part of our group, after all,” Brian responded grimly, briefly recalling those days before refocusing on the matter. “We’ve got plenty of info about the opposition, just not their next move.”

The cat gave a restrained sigh, mentally reshuffling his next words. “And _that_ is the point I’m telling you; you’re in a position where you have Locke taken off balance, what with Quantum and whatever that thing out front is having failed.” He ended his speech with a minor rub of his temple, gaze growing more openly annoyed.

“And _you_ don’t think Scarface there doesn’t have more irons in the fire, more plans to enact in the case of failing that?” Max pressed from the other side. “Even if we took the battle to his door, wherever it could actually be, he’s probably expecting a move, and we wouldn’t fare too well on his turf with his numbers, not knowing what other schemes he’s got working elsewhere - to say nothing if we arrive at a decoy, only to get wiped out by an ambush.”

“Absolutely correct, British Mummy; charging Locke head on at this stage _is_ a bad move.” Cipher paused only briefly to take hold of the papers lying between them, shuffling through them until he found the object of his interest. “If anything, you’ve made Cueball rightfully paranoid, so going near him anytime soon would end about as well as Russian Roulette with a clip-loaded handgun. Meanwhile, you have several allies - namely your heavy hitter - down, injured, or otherwise incapable of proper combat on your own side, so you’d be going at him half-cocked.”

“_I’m beginning to suspect you’re full of shit about actually _knowing_ anything…_” Zeus grumbled.

“Then let me spell it out; what’s the next best move from Locke’s perspective?” The cat returned his gaze to the duo as he slapped the paper onto the table, revealing it to be Purgatory’s file.

“He knows he doesn’t have the numbers to charge in and finish us off, especially if we’re the ones in cover, so coming in to do that is also a bad move on his part; even if he knows the place, that just means he knows we’ll be ready for him.” Max nodded, staring at the photograph. “The only move that really makes sense is to shore up the progress on his next plan while we’re either working on unknowns and fumbling about or licking our wounds…and judging by that file, Purgatory’s the main player in this next step…”

“_Wait…so are you saying that our next target is the god complex-having, little miss ‘I’m a fucking pretty angel’ psycho; Purgatory?!_” Zeus responded with slight shock.

“This may either be good news or bad news for Tsuneo, depending on how he takes this,” Brian sighed. “On the one hand, he’s going to finally get a shot at his biggest instigator; on the other, she’s got a lot of advantages against him…”

“Something I would frankly pay to see given his current state of health - zombification not factored,” Cipher noted blandly as he examined his gloved hand. “Tania Valentine, as I recall, would like nothing more than to off your undead pal, and with the problems he’s caused the Azures so far, Weiss would probably agree. Plain and simply, Tsuneo wouldn’t last a minute, given his…_diminished_ state…”

“We just discussed that they’re in no position to make a move either, between Purgatory’s current plan and their lacking numbers despite that. They’re not stupid enough to send anyone our way right now.” Max reasoned right back. “After all, if they lose Purgatory now, whatever their plan is would fall apart.”

“You don’t have to make an offensive move in chess, Max, and the same applies for life. In my professional opinion, the Azures and Crimsons are in a stalemate, and the best way to break a stalemate is by prepping your side of the board.” From his disinterested rambling, one might’ve suspected Cipher to merely be relaying last week’s traffic incidents, rather than offering tactical advice. 

“And now we’re back to the original question: What _is_ their next move? What is their preparation to break this stalemate? Their equalizer?” Brian pressed, taking the file to skim through it. “We have our own plan moving forward, but a target to cripple or destroy once our forces are ready would certainly ease the time spent searching.”

“And so we arrive back at my very first point; ‘_know the enemy_’,” Cipher responded. “As it stands - and I do mean this from a _purely_ objective standpoint - the optimal response Locke can hope to achieve is to rally his forces, and then remove any advantages you may have, as well as taking any shots he can manage in the meantime.” The feline paused to look both men in the eye before proceeding. “Quantum’s failed him, his chimera is dead, Hart and 1:30 are likely helping him fortify his defences, and Saturn has reasons to disagree with his next likely move. My suspicion holds that he will have already ordered Purgatory to ensure that your friend doesn’t get the opportunity to pick his sword back up; you need to find her and make sure she doesn’t have the chance to see it through.”

“Well, Purgatory can’t tackle Tsuneo directly with all of us here…and the Initiative has no scouting information on us since we took out the forward base…so they must have a means to stop Tsuneo indirectly…?” Max seemed to be thinking aloud as Brian pulled out a page from the file.

“Hmm…**The Cathedral?** That name’s showing up a lot in recent reports here...” Brian glanced up at Cipher as his brows furrowed in thought. “Do you know anything about this Cathedral?”

“If the name’s any hint, it’s likely a personal base of Purgatory’s,” Cipher scoffed. “I had a few favors called in just to learn the damn thing’s _name,_ much less its _general_ location.”

“And do you know of this Cathedral’s whereabouts?” Max’s question only caused Cipher to chuckle grimly.

“Not enough to be useful…and even if I _did_ know, that’s not information I’d wanna give you. Like I said before, you’re in no position to be charging headlong into that mess, and what do you think Deadhead would do if he knew where it was?”

Once again, Zeus couldn’t hide his scoff. “_Hmph. Must be nice, being a servant of the Initiative. You sure you're a cat? Because you seem to be more of a lap dog if anything-_”

“Zeus!!” Brian shouted indignantly.

“Well, pardon the man who actually has enough of a heart _left_ to think of the tiny-minded individuals with no self-control and withhold the information that would probably get all your lemming asses killed trying to either follow or stop the fool that wants to go knocking down the front door prematurely.” Cipher’s smirk had the barest hint of condescension. “It’s for your own good as much as it is his.”

“_Well, **your** heart is well and truly in the wrong place!_” Zeus snapped back. “_Do you have **any** idea what sort of people you are defending right now?! Or is it just normal for you mortals to sell your soul to the highest bidder?!_” His rant was cut off once more, this time by Max clamping a hand around the Parasite’s mouth.

“Zeus. Shut up,” the assassin growled. “…Cipher’s right. Tsuneo would be off at a moment’s notice if it meant he could kill Tania right now, and in our condition, we couldn’t assist or stop him… We might even see if his name holds up to Purgatory’s magic, and if _Sylvie’s_ was enough to make the man scream in pain…”

Zeus conceded the point with a muffled growl, prompting a raised eyebrow from Cipher. “No offense, Spider guy…but you should consider putting a leash on that paras-”

As if a trigger button was hit, Brian’s body moved on its own, grabbing the feline by his shirt and pulling him close to Brian’s face, where a massive purple eye manifested on the spider-bunny’s forehead.

“_YOU WANT TO RUN THAT BY ME AGAIN, YOU HAIRBALL-SPITTING **RUNT?!**_”

“…I rest my case.” With another cold smirk, Cipher raised a knee to impact Brian’s gut, causing his grip to loosen. As the hybrid reeled, the feline took an instinctive step back to draw and level his guns on the spider-bunny.

“_GRRR! GIVE ME **ONE** GOOD REASON WHY I SHOULDN’T SHRED YOUR HIDE HERE AND NOW!? We’ve got the info that we need, so at this point…**YOU ARE USELESS TO US!**_” Zeus punctuated his threat by raising Brian’s right arm, mutating into a giant blade made of bone.

“_Except the location._” Despite the very real threat of bodily harm before him, the feline’s smirk remained undimmed. “Think about it for a sec…whatever Tania’s cooking up in that Cathedral, you know she’s building it _just_ to deal with NeverDead, so you can’t just leave it alone. But in your current state, you can’t handle going after her, and if you kill me now, you’ll never know where that is, and she can launch an attack with impunity. So how about this; come and see me when your numbers are shored up, and I’ll tell ya where to go from there.” He paused to holster his guns. “Other than that, you’ll be paying for it with more than just blood.”

Zeus only growled in fury before Brian finally retook control, arm reforming back to its normal state as he glared at his infected hand.

“Gaah! Zeus! That was _way_ out of line!” Brian shouted. “I get you’re pissed off - believe me, I’m just as annoyed as you are. But whether we like it or not, we have to respect his loyalties. …Even if they _are_ being put on the wrong people.”

“Trust me, Zeus…I know that pain all too well…” Max sighed as he recalled one of the first and least comfortable lessons he had learned in the assassin’s guild: the only thing determining whether his fellows would be with him or against him was the contract they were following.

“Where did I say anything about _loyalties,_ boys?” The feline chuckled a little. “I just know a losing strategy when I see one - it’s on you if you don’t believe me. I’m just lookin’ out for you right now.”

“_And why’s that, _exactly?!” Zeus barked back.

The cat offered them a shrug and another smirk. “Simple; we made a deal. Got my ass out of a fire, so I’m keepin’ yours out of one too. What you do with what I tell you is your own poison, but I won’t say anything that’s just gonna get you killed right now. What kind of favor would I get from you guys if you _died_ from my advice?”

“…What are you proposing?” Brian squinted slightly as the mention of Cipher’s “favor” came up once more.

“Only that we want the same thing at the end of the day.” The mercenary shrugged once again as he withdrew a pack of cigarettes from his pocket. “The Azure Initiative wants you dead, you want _them_ dead, and _I_ need something from them. If you take my word on anything, that’d be the fact to go with.” He paused to take a long drag off his newly-lit cigarette before finishing. “_The enemy of my enemy_, as it were.”

Brian’s stare hardened ever-so-slightly at the remark. “...What exactly are you after here?” He waited until he had the feline’s eye to continue. “You’re in this for money, or _something_, right? What do you have to gain by helping _us_ without guarantee of success or recompense?”

The two maintained eye contact for another full minute before Cipher gave a soft chuckle, accompanied by a more genuine smile. “Does it matter?” He ignored the incredulous looks he received as he walked around the table, extracting a black flip phone from his shirt pocket and handing it to the hybrid. “Call me when you’re ready to make your move; not a _moment_ before then.” Without waiting for a reply, he exited the room, leaving both Councilmen in silence.

“Well…that gives us plenty to chew on for now…” Brian nodded, almost more to himself than to Max… “We know who our next target is; now, we just gotta complete our preparations; finding the new base, recruiting more members, finding Irene…and _especially_ making sure that Tsuneo will be ready to go with the rest of us.”

“I know.” Max’s smile was audible. “_He’d_ be the one to kill us if we stormed Tania’s Cathedral without him.”

The pair chuckled softly, heading out to the old War Room to combine the new intel with what they knew…

**THE SOCIETY WILL RETURN**


	3. Island Ho!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time to find an island to call home!

## Tales of the Society - The Azure Age

### Chapter 7.3: Island Ho!

_ **Last time on Tales of the Society...** _

_With their base ravaged, their supplies bottoming out, and Tsuneo still comatose from the aftermath of the Clusterfuck Attack, the Crimson Society knew that they were in no shape to _survive_ another assault, much less turn the tables on the Azure Initiative. Looking to kill two birds with one stone, Brian proposed that the group move to a new, safer locale: an island in the uncharted seas of the Nexian Surface. Large enough to sustain the Society indefinitely, remote enough to avoid easy detection, and secure enough to hold against even the largest invasion forces, it would be a true paradise for Sergeant Spider and his friends…once they actually _found_ an island that fit the bill._

_While some of their friends set out in search of their new home, Brian and Max went to meet with their new “informant” on the Azures: the mysterious “Cipher”. The feline gunman quickly rubbed both Councilmen the wrong way with his blase approach to their feud with the Initiative, making it clear that he only aligned with them because he also wanted something from the villains. Nonetheless, he provided them with a hint to Weiss’s plans; sending Purgatory to prepare something called “The Cathedral” while he and his remaining allies fortified their defences._

_No one knows what this “Cathedral” is, but it’s almost certainly bad news for the Society, if not the Nexus at large. Our heroes had better get back on their feet soon if they want any chance of stopping it… especially since they still owe Cipher a “favor”…_

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After a five-mile flight, Scafe, Tim and Tavo reached the nearest shoreline. It was a clear day, so the ocean before them glittered under the light of the sun overhead; however, the trio had more pressing concerns than enjoying the sights.

“Alright, let’s review the plan,” Scafe said. “It’s up to us to find a new home out there; an island big enough to support a lot of people, with ground fertile enough to support sustained farmland, and far enough from the shorelines that it can’t easily be found.”

“Going by that logic…I suggest that we all fly off in 30-degree deviations,” Tim replied. “I’ll go left, Tavo goes right…Scafe, you’re in the middle. We’ll begin the search about ten minutes out; anything sooner will be too close to the mainland.”

“This is gonna be an interesting endeavour,” Tavo quipped, pushing a boat into the water as he spoke. “It’s like going shopping for a new car…only replace the car with a massive island!…and there’s no money involved…so it wouldn’t technically be sh-” He paused mid-sentence to smack himself in the face with a hoof. “WOW, I suck at metaphors!”

“Well, we won’t get anything done standing around; let’s get the lead out!” Scafe motioned to his friends before taking off straight ahead. Tim and Gorgoroth quickly followed suit; the former veered off to the left, while the latter swerved to the right, with Tavo chugging along below in his boat. In less than two minutes, the trio had vanished from sight; the search had begun in earnest.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**-ATTEMPT #1-**

Tavo groaned as he surveyed the islands around him; most were little more than patches of sand barely peeking over the water, with the largest having a few rocks and sparse patches of grass.

“Welp, this is just fucking _sad._” Signalling Gorgoroth to perch on the bow of his boat, the unicorn pulled out his communicator and contacted his superior. “No luck on my end, Scafe…I seem to be finding mostly sandbars out here; not even a single tree…”

“Same here…” Scafe responded. “Most of the islands I found so far are just riddled with mountains and the sort; nothin’ I can see us putting farmland on...”

Just then, Tim piped up on the other line with a hint of confidence in his voice. “Hello lads~” he chuckled. “Our island-hunting troubles are over! I think I may have found a definitive candidate for our new home; quite an impressive shoreline from my perspective.”

“Oh, sweet!” Tavo said gleefully. “Well, go on! Get a once-over of the island and see how it looks!”

“Ha ha, I _knew_ we could count on you,” Scafe added. “Being one of the sophisticated types, I figured you should know a thing or two about classy, good-looking things. Just remember, we need enough land to set up a good farming base, plus whatever else Brian gets the itch to build. Flat land is best; we can level out small hills, but I doubt even Irene can take care of mountains.”

“Roger that!” Tim answered. “I’ll make sure I take the _time_ to get a few photos from all angles.” He allowed himself a smirk at the faint groans of exasperation before continuing. “Fear not, though. This island has ‘Crimson Society territory’ written all over it…metaphorically speaking.”

With that, the well-dressed pegasus flitted along the coastline of the island, taking good photographs along the way. However, he soon saw the coastline terminate, revealing a giant cape in the center of the island. Curious, Tim soared higher to get a better look, only to discover that the island was surprisingly small; the cape took up most of the area the shoreline showed. It looked like nothing so much as a giant comma; a curling sliver of forest and sand in the vastness of the sea.

“Hm…” The pony-man rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he sized up the island. “Well…I hope this will be enough land for what we need…a massive cape like this certainly looks rather impressive.” He snapped an aerial photo before sending them to Scafe, hoping for a good reaction.

Elsewhere, Scafe perked up as a beeping noise was heard from his pocket. “Oh. Hello~ The photos have come in.” He checked his phone to find six different angles of Tim’s discovery; it didn’t take long for his enthusiasm to fade. He had just finished reviewing the final photo when the pony-man himself called to follow up.

“Well? What do you think?” Tim asked, sounding quite pleased with himself. “Is this not the best island you’ve ever seen?”

“…Uh, Tim?” Scafe paused to take a breath, hoping that he wouldn’t sound too judgemental. “You mentioned that this island has ‘Crimson Society’ written all over it? Well…judging from what I’m seeing, it’s more like it’s saying ‘_Aquatic_ Society!’”

“…I’m…not sure I follow…” Tim’s response was interrupted by a shout from Tavo, having just finished reviewing the photos himself.

“Dude!! We’re trying to make a _home,_ not a fucking BEACH RESORT!!” The diminutive unicorn flailed his hooves for emphasis, even though no one but Gorgoroth could see it. “There’s _way_ too much water there; unless we all wanna pick up trades as fisherman, we won’t have a sustainable food source with that little farmland!”

“Preposterous!” Tim protested. “The island looked big the moment I approached it! Besides, I heard that fish is a great source of protein; with this much water, there should be all sorts of aquatic wildlife for us to-”

“**No!**” Scafe and Tavo responded in unison.

“…Oh drat…” Tim sighed in defeat. “Very well. I’ll keep searching, then…”

“Yeah, and this time, try to find one with less water, okay?”

“What are you, Tavo? Some sort of ignorant video game reviewer?” Tim grumbled before hanging up on his end. _People these days…no _time_ for aesthetics._ Even his trademark pun couldn’t quite lift his spirits after _that_ kind of reception.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**-ATTEMPT #2-**

With Tim’s suggestion shot down, Scafe pocketed his communicator and resumed his approach on a find of his own: a large island dominated by an impressive mountain in the center. Although he could already tell that the topography wasn’t ideal, he decided to explore the rest of it on his own and get a feel for the environment.

“It’s really temperate here…” The dragon sniffed the air, taking in the humidity; damp, but not oppressively so. “Tropical heat, even in tree cover… Perfect weather for farmland crops with minimal need for rain. This _could_ work if we could portion out the space along the mountainside…” He was roused from his train of thought by a sudden tremor in the ground, followed by several more that seemed to be growing steadily stronger.

_That pace…too regular for an earthquake……_ The dragon frowned as he realized what the shaking was. _Footsteps…BIG ones, at that._ He turned in time to see the source of the stomping; a large, reptilian figure slowly lumbering past the trees.

_A fucking T-Rex!? Are you **kidding** me!?_ Cursing his luck, Scafe very quickly flew into a nearby cave for cover. “Shit…I guess Tsuneo wasn’t kidding when he told us about islands before…‘_Every piece of land is just a chunk that made it to the surface; even the islands are like this…_’ And this island’s starting to look unpleasantly familiar...” He’d barely turned to catch his breath before finding out that he wasn’t alone…

“Aw crap, called it. I’m in _ARK: Survival Evolved._”

Scafe resisted the urge to bolt again as his eyes landed on a massive scorpion not six feet away from him. He knew from past gaming sessions with the Councilmen that this was a _Pulmonoscorpius gigantus,_ a prehistoric monstrosity with venom sacs in its claws as well as its pincers, which it used to tranquilize its prey before eating them alive. This particular specimen seemed content to stare back at the unfamiliar intruder, more curious than hostile, but Scafe had no intention of testing its patience.

“Okay…okay…just gotta stay quiet and not touch the giant scorpion…” Remembering _Pulmonoscorpius_’ love of “personal space”, the dragon-man slowly backed away and ducked behind a boulder. “I’ll just hide…behind this massive rock…but holy shit, the wildlife here is fucking crazy…I just need to wait for it to wander off, and-”

As if fate was waiting for that tempting phrase, Scafe’s phone chose that moment to ring. In a panic, he quickly grabbed his phone, hoping against hope that _Pulmonoscorpius_ didn’t mind the unfamiliar sound of his ringtone.

“Ey! Scafe!” Tavo shouted. “What’s the word on y-”

“DUDE! SSHHHH!!!” Scafe hissed back. “You’re going to- _SHIT!_” He caught the sound of scuttling limbs just in time to duck under a sudden sting; clearly, the scorpion hadn’t taken kindly to his cellphone’s racket. He quickly drew his scimitar, dodged a claw swipe, and slashed at the monstrous arachnid’s limb, chopping it off in a spray of green blood.

“Bro?! You okay?? The hell’s going on back there?!” Tavo’s concerned question went ignored for the moment as Scafe ran from the cave as fast as his legs would take him; as he feared, the pained shrieks of the wounded _Pulmonoscorpius_ soon drew the attention of other predators in the forest beyond. As he ran for the beach, blindly slashing, chain-whipping, and burning everything that even looked like an obstacle, he glimpsed all manner of prehistoric beasts converging on him; ravenous dinosaurs, colossal insects, massive serpents, and even a couple of humanoid figures clad in cobbled-together armor.

“THIS ISLAND’S A NO! THIS ISLAND’S A NO! THIS ISLAND’S A BIG, FUCKING **NO!!!!**” Scafe screamed his “report” like a frantic mantra as he finally made it onto the beach. With open space at last, he spread his wings and took flight, fleeing the shoreline amid a chorus of roars, hisses, and howls. A few pterosaurs made to follow, but a blast of fire breath and a swing of a Thunder Chain proved sufficient to deter them as Scafe flew towards a small sandbar well away from the main landmass. After a quick check for any aquatic beasts lurking nearby, he slumped on the sand and tried to catch his breath, just in time for Tim to pipe up on the other line as well.

“Ahem…I take that to mean your attempt was a bust, Scafe?” he asked dryly.

“What…the fuck…do you…_think?!_” Scafe snarled, still too rattled for humor. After a few moments, he regained enough composure to address his friends properly. “Heugh…I found the _ARK_ chunk; dinos, mega bugs, and whatnot all over the place… Yeah, that wouldn’t work even if we _could_ use the space around the center mountain effectively…”

“……Welp! At least there wasn’t that much water~!” Tavo’s attempt to make light of the situation earned him a quick retort from Tim.

“Tavo, with all due respect, my dear friend… Go _clock_ yourself out.” As Tim clicked out of the conversation, Scafe lay on the sand for a few minutes, trying to get his bearings back. Once his heart rate finally returned to normal, he rose, dusted himself off, and took off again to resume his search.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**-ATTEMPT #3-**

“Psshh. Tough crowd…”

After his attempt at levity was shot down by Tim, Tavo continued his search, staring ahead as Gorgoroth fluttered back down to tell him of another island it found.

“Well, looks like my luck’s turning around~! C’mon Gorgoroth, lead me there!”

With a screech of confirmation, the beastly bat flew towards the island, with Tavo in hot pursuit. Once he landed on the shore, he examined the area, noting that the island was predominantly sand and rock.

“Hmmm...well…” The unicorn frowned to himself as he reviewed the Society’s criteria. “No trees for miles…and there isn’t that much water…farming here might be tricky. But look at all this space, though! Nice and flat! Hahaha…I think this will do.” He dug a forehoof into the sand, smiling at the soft, warm feeling. “And hey! The sand isn’t even that bad; soft, silky, and a nice relaxing temperature. Hah! There’s no _way_ this one can go wrong!” He laughed to himself as he signalled his beast to come to his side. “Alright Gorgoroth! You did good - take five while I get someone else to scout this place!”

With a thought, Tavo summoned his Hellgate portal over Gorgoroth, dismissing the bat-like beast and summoning Opeth instead. The dragon-like quadruped stretched its limbs, giving a long yawn before looking to its master.

“Alrighty Opeth,” Tavo said. “I need you to search this island for me. Use that incredible speed of yours to check every nook and cranny - if you find anything important, report back to me, okay?” 

Opeth simply wagged its tail slowly as a sign of confirmation and took off across the sandy wastelands.

“Atta boy!” Tavo watched the blur of scales and claws vanish in the distance before sitting down and taking out his communicator. “In the meantime, I’ll give the others a call…tell ‘em the big news~”

As Tavo called Tim and Scafe, Opeth galloped across the island, pausing just long enough to examine anything that wasn’t plain sand. Although the island was empty of any wildlife, plant life, or any other sort of terrain, it certainly seemed quite calm and safe; it searched one area after another without a single sign of danger. Eventually, the beast reached a massive cavern, almost resembling a gaping maw at a glance.

Opeth stared into the cave’s entrance for a brief moment, a low growl escaping its throat as it pondered just what could be inside. As it got closer, it found a pile of bones; unphased by the sight, it flicked a skull further into the cavern with its tail, hoping to get a response.

Just then, a loud audible _thwack_ was heard, followed by what sounded like a groan as something began shuffling about in the darkness. Opeth was about to enter when it saw something glaring at it: a massive pair of blood-red eyes with dark red veins and black pupils. The beast quickly stepped back, growling as it took a battle stance at whatever was in that cave.

After a moment, the creature inside the cave finally emerged. Its top half was a lanky, emaciated humanoid with large skinny arms ending in sharp claws. Its jaw was split in two, with ten tongues dangling between rows and rows of misshapen teeth. Its bottom half resembled a colossal, spike-ridden centipede, with limbs clicking and flexing as it reared up to tower over the intruder.

Opeth’s combative growl quickly dwindled into a whine as it sized up the monstrosity; it suddenly realized that the bones at the entrance belonged to unfortunate victims of the creature now eyeing it. As the monster roared in fury, Opeth turned on a dime and bolted back to its master; the beast quickly gave chase, diving into the sand as easily as a fish would swim through water.

As Opeth dashed back the way it came, it felt the rumbling in the sand beneath its paws intensify dramatically. Risking a glance over its shoulder, it saw large wormlike creatures leaping out of the sand, screeching terribly as they joined the hybrid ghoul’s pursuit. Even in the instant that Opeth watched, the sand seemed to explode behind the oncoming monsters - their furious passage was awakening yet more subterranean beasts. Needless to say, Opeth immediately looked straight ahead and redoubled its sprint, hoping to reach Tavo in time to get them all out of there…

Meanwhile, Tavo himself was still on the line with Tim and Scafe. “I’m telling you, guys! This place is perfect!” he insisted. “I mean, sure it doesn’t have any trees, grass, or…_anything_ besides sand…but it's really spacious!”

“And just _how_ do you expect us to start a farm when there’s no soil in sight?” Scafe groaned.

“I’m sure if we dig deep enough-” Tavo paused at the distant sound of rumbling and roaring. “Wha…?” He strained his ears, but the sound faded as quickly as it came.

“What’s going on, Tavo?” Tim asked.

“Huh… I thought I heard loud roaring…wait a minute.” Tavo squinted his eyes to see something approaching his way. “Is…is that Opeth? Eyy! Opeth’s coming back! …Wait…what in the name of Metallica is that behind him?!”

The color drained from Tavo’s face as Opeth crested the hill, shortly followed by an ungodly horde of sand monsters. Besides the large centipede-like abomination and a group of Moldorms, there were now sand sharks, sand krakens, colossal vultures, and even mutant cacti.

“**SWEET MOTHER OF HORSE DICK!!**” Tavo screamed in complete shock as a distant dune seemed to explode, revealing an entire herd of massive biomechanical worms leaping from below. _ Thresher Maws…and a fucking **lot** of ‘em…_ At a glance, it looked like there were almost as many Thresher Maws as there were other creatures combined; that’s when it finally clicked.

“Oooooh, sweet Merzbow...” he growled. “I think this island is a chunk of whatever that game was that Brian and Tsuneo never shut up about… _Mass Effect_, I think…”

“Desert landscape, lots of big bad things, _Mass Effect_…you found a chunk of Tuchanka?” Scafe answered uneasily.

“Hehe… Chunk of Tu-_Chunk_-a…ah ha ha, that’s a good one.” Tim chuckled.

“Tim, this is no laughing matter. Tavo, **_GET THE HELL OUTTA THERE!!!_**” Scafe practically screamed into his mic.

“YOU DON’T NEED TO TELL ME TWICE!!!” Tavo responded. “OPETH! HURRY!!!!!” Once Opeth finally got close enough, he quickly leapt up and hitched a ride on his beast’s back. “GET US TO THE SHORE!!!”

Opeth needed no encouragement as he made a break for the shoreline, the monsters behind him drawing far too close for comfort. Once the boat was in sight, Tavo all but vaulted off of Opeth’s back, dismissing him in favor of Gorgoroth - at the same time, he heard and felt the cacophony behind him beginning to die out. Turning back apprehensively, he saw that the creatures had started to back off once he got near the water; some were turning on each other, but most simply burrowed back into the sand and rumbled away.

“Welp… That was _way_ too fucking intense…” Tavo would’ve collapsed with relief had he not been worried about any straggling monsters taking advantage of his lapse in alertness. “Looks like they have the run of the island, aside from the…5% of shoreline…fucking fantastic.” With a sigh of defeat, he climbed back into the boat, reactivating the motor and signalling Gorgoroth. “Oh well… Let’s get moving, guys. Any place we find now can’t be any worse than THAT one…”

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**ATTEMPT #4**

Scafe gave a sigh of relief as he heard Tavo’s boat motor starting up. “Three islands, guys…_three_ islands…and they all turned out to be massive flops,” he lamented.

“Man, you’d think island searching would be as simple as putting on pants,” Tavo added sarcastically.

“And how would you know?” Tim retorted. “You’ve never worn pants in your life! ...Though it _is_ easy, for the record.”

“Nobody said this was gonna be _easy_…although I still can’t help but feel like someone’s got it out for us, with the luck we’ve been having so far,” Scafe said, almost as much to himself as to the Equestrians. “There’s gotta be at least _one_ island out here that’s good enough for the Society…c’mon, Nexus…throw me a friggin’ bone here…”

After five more minutes of flight, Scafe’s prayers seemed to be answered; he saw another large island on the horizon. His heart sank when he saw mountains leading up from the beaches; as he drew nearer still, however, he saw that the range was only on the edge of the island, like a natural wall. Beyond the mountains lay actual _forests_ instead of jungle, their canopies rustled by a fresh temperate breeze.

_That looks promising…_“looks”_ being the key word here._ Scafe flew in closer, circling the inner edge of the mountains to get a better look at the trees. After about ten minutes, he’d lapped around the perimeter, so he followed up by making a few passes over the heart of the place. He even went under the tree tops a few times, bound and determined to make sure that there weren’t any “surprises” on this landmass.

After about fifteen minutes of searching, Scafe finally perched on a tree to gather his thoughts. “Wow…this one’s _huge_ and devoid of abnormal life - haven’t seen anything weirder than a deer - nice climate, too. Couple of small mountain ranges along the edges, but…otherwise…” His smile went from ear to ear as he put a hand to his communicator. 

“Guys…I’ve found it. It’s huge, temperate, fertile, no other islands for over a mile in all directions, no hostile wildlife, mountains only at some shorelines…I’m sending you all photos now.” He pulled out his phone and started snapping pictures, sending them to his fellow searchers…and to Brian as well. After about ten more minutes, he got a call from his fellow Councilman. 

“…Scafe. Get back here. Right the hell _now._” Despite his firm orders, Brian sounded nothing short of ecstatic. “And don’t you _dare_ forget the way you came.”

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It took roughly two hours for everyone to return back to shore, where Brian was waiting with a large speedboat drawn up. With Scafe leading from the air, they made their way out to his island candidate in record time. Brian was first to disembark, looking at the expanse of forest from beside the large mountain range to his left.

“Weeell?” Scafe asked expectantly. “Whaddya think, Sarge?”

“Well…if this was a museum, I think we might be looking at a fucking _masterpiece waiting to happen_ here.” The spider-bunny smiled widely, his eyes gleaming with a creative spark his friends knew all too well as he ran into the forest, looking for a good place to start. A few hundred feet into the woodlands, he called back to his friends with his communicator.

“Boys, I want you to clearcut from here all the way to the shoreline. This is where our new home’s gonna sit. I’ll start with a teleporter room, so the rest of us can start helping out.” As he spoke, Brian drew a long line to form the back wall of the new abode, marking their boundary to focus on.

“Phew…no insane monsters or anything of the sort… Thank the gods.” Scafe said as he collapsed next to the boat in relief.

“Yea…and no abominations lurking beneath the sand, either…” Tavo had barely climbed out of the boat before he lay down next to Scafe. “To think, this is what I’d end up doing after I had just had my rest-”

“_HEY!_” Zeus bellowed. “_Get your asses over here and start cutting down trees! What the hell do we pay you guys for, anyway?!_”

“Hm…I wasn’t aware that you were paying us _at all._” Tim chuckled wryly before glancing at Scafe and Tavo. “Come along, gentlemen - _time_ waits for no one.” Twirling his lightsaber in one hand and flicking his pocket watch open with the other, he flew out of the boat and towards Brian’s work site, humming a jaunty tune as his friends rolled their eyes.

“Welp. In that case…” Tavo stood up and summoned his Hellgate. “Let’s get cracking. Come on out, Emperor!” He smirked at Scafe as his largest beast emerged from the portal. “Think you can topple more trees than Emperor can, Scafe?”

In response, Scafe jumped to his feet and summoned his chains. “Loser gets last pick of rooms?” he grinned.

Tavo only returned the draconic Councilman’s grin as he climbed onto Emperor’s back. “You’re on!” he cried, directing his beast to charge into the forest with Scafe close behind.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Alright, that’s a good start.” Brian wiped his brow and stepped back to survey his work; he had completed most of the basement and a small bit of the first floor.

“_Yeah…a few more walls and it’ll _almost_ look like half of a house,_” Zeus snarked, eyeing the many half-open rooms and stairs to nowhere along the edges of Brian’s handiwork.

“Hey! Rome wasn’t built in a day, ya know!” Despite his protests, Brian’s mood was undimmed as he re-sharpened his pencil. “I’m making sure I have my priorities in order - the foundations, main generator, Trauma Ward, and Teleporter Room are up and running. Now the rest of the gang can come and help speed up the construction!”

“_And you also made a room for Tsuneo’s recovery, I see. Smart~_” Zeus’s tone betrayed his own pride in his host’s progress. “_I guess we’re all set to deal with the third problem on our immediate to-do list, then._”

“Yep,” Brian agreed, with just a hint of uncertainty. “Assuming that our resident portal mistress is ready to go…”

“_I’m sure she’s fine,_” Zeus said. “_It’s been, what, four days since she left? Just give her a call, Brian - worst-case scenario, she’s still busy._”

Brian was briefly tempted to point out that “being busy” was _hardly_ the worst that could be happening to Irene, but he instead shrugged and pulled out his communicator. “Fervent Flame, come in,” he said. “This is Sergeant Spider calling for a status update - ya there, firefly?”

After a few seconds, a familiar groan sounded over the communicator. “The nicknames never cease, I see. Anyway, what’s up?”

“Hey Irene - glad to hear from ya!” Brian grinned at the voice; from the sound of it, Irene was back to her usual snarky self. “Have you finally returned from…wherever it was you were at?”

“Yeah. Sorry it took me so long. I was…busy.”

“I see,” Brian responded laconically, resisting the urge to ask about his friend’s latest adventure. “Well, just figured I’d let you know that we’re setting up our new island base. Will you be able to transport Tsuneo over to our location when we’re done?”

“Yeah, I’ll be there short- wait, new _island_ base?” Even over the communicator, Brian could imagine Irene’s double take. “…Never mind; just tell me when I get there.”

“No problem,” Brian replied, walking back to the base-in-progress as he spoke. “For now, just portal over to the old HQ when you’re ready; I’ll have told the rest of the gang where we are by then. Lookin’ forward to seeing you, Irene - Sergeant Spider out.”

After hanging up, Brian went to the newly-finished Teleporter Room and activated the Warp Pad, allowing his friends to go home; it was getting dark, and he figured that they’d all rather have covered beds after all their hard work. He was the last to use the pad, and when he did, he found Eli waiting for him on the other side.

“Ey, nice timing!” the chinchilla said cheerfully. “I just finished introducing the gang to our newest wave of recruits! Two of ‘em came at your request, I called one, Dante called another, and…” He paused and glanced around, as if expecting spies to pop out of the woodwork. “…Well…you’ll see in a sec.”

“_Huh…that’s interesting,_” Zeus muttered. “_Alright, let’s meet the new blood, Eli._”

With a nod, Eli gave a call of “That’s your cue!” behind him, signalling a quartet of new faces to enter the room. Brian recognized two of them immediately; an anthropomorphic mantis with a yellow-orange scarf, and a pale phantom wrapped in a tattered, dark blue cloak.

“Hey, bro! Good to see you!” The mantis waved at Brian, getting a wide smile from the spider-bunny as he stepped down from the Warp Pad. The brothers exchanged a quick man hug before stepping back and clapping a spider limb against a scythe-like arm.

“Thanks for coming on such short notice, **Matt.Hanna** too.”

“I hardly needed encouragement,” the phantom replied smoothly. “To arrive at the behest of one of my best and earliest friends…truly a timeless literary convention.” His smile was no less sincere for the lack of skin on half of his emaciated face. “It’s a pleasure to work with you once more…although your new friends might need to adjust to having _two_ Brians in the plot.”

“Aah, it’ll be fine - just go by ‘Hanna’ like you always do!” Brian waved a hand casually before looking over the two he didn’t recognize. “Alright, who are you lot?”

Eli grinned as he stepped over to the first newcomer, an anthropomorphic grey wolf with red and black hair. “This here’s **JoJo Greytail,** the friend of mine I mentioned,” he said. “I was hoping to get a hold of a few more pals, but this guy’s got more than enough moves to make up for them…and definitely enough quirks for ‘em too.”

“_Heh…I guess it’s true what they say…hips don’t lie, huh?_” Zeus’s quip was half-hearted as JoJo strutted up to Brian, clearly proud of his muscular but rather curvaceous figure.

“Trust me, you got _no_ idea.” The wolf smirked and gave a small hip check in retaliation, sending Brian stumbling over to the second new face: a female anthropomorph with black and white markings on her dull grey fur. Her species was harder to determine than JoJo’s, with a mixture of feline and canine features, but her small frown and the glint in her ice-blue eyes told Brian that this was not a woman to cross.

“Lemme guess…Dante’s contact?” Brian asked, a little off-kilter from JoJo’s hip bump.

“Try _girlfriend._” The woman rolled her eyes as she held out a hand. “Name’s **Zs.** I’m here to kick ass and rein in my lunatic hubby…probably by kicking _his_ ass.”

“I, uh…I see.” Brian was sorely tempted to ask exactly _what_ kind of relationship Zs had with Dante, but the question escaped his mind when he took the offered handshake and almost had his hand crushed for the trouble. “Aah! Little lady, b-big handshake, huh?”

The corners of Zs’s lips twitched as she released Brian’s hand. “Unlike Dante, I’m not much of a talker. I prefer to let actions speak for me…or, y’know, _this._” Her almost-smile widened as she produced a high-tech machete from somewhere unseen.

“_Well, that’s quite the convincing argument,_” Zeus chuckled from his host’s free hand. _Something tells me we’re gonna like you, lady-!!_” He let out a small yelp as Zs pointed her blade dangerously close to his mouth.

“Dante warned me about you, maggot-boy. Don’t even _think_ of trying it.”

Zeus’s muffled grunt - half affirmative, half exasperated - brought a smile to Brian’s face as he looked back at Eli. “So, who’s the fifth recruit?” he asked.

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Eli answered. “He, uh…called _me_ yesterday; said he wanted to see us in person about something big.”

“Oh…?” Brian scratched his head with a spider leg as he wondered who this mysterious person could be. “Well…what’s his name?”

Eli shrugged. “Didn’t say - he wanted to tell us when he got here. Something about…‘only having to explain once’ or something? …Here, why don’t I bring him in right now?” He turned around to call out the doorway once more. “Hey, kid! Come over here and introduce yourself.”

On cue, another figure entered the room: an anthropomorphic male goat who looked to be in his mid-teens at most. His pure white fur was sharply contrasted by his dark red hair and his outfit: a black jumpsuit with red markings - most notably an uppercase “C” on the chest - that covered everything but his head, hooves, and most of his arms.

“Brian Buena…” he said respectfully. “I’m glad that I can finally meet you in person - it’s an honor, really.”

“Nice to meet you too.” Brian smiled, but he couldn’t hide a bit of a squint as he sized up the goatling. “Hmm…you know…I can’t shake the feeling that you…_remind_ me of someone…”

“Yeah…I kind of guessed you’d say that.” The goat closed his eyes and smiled back with a hint of sadness. “That’s…sort of the reason I called.”

Brian and Eli exchanged glances as Zeus spoke up. “_Uhh…in non-cryptic speak, please?_”

“Well…allow me to formally introduce myself.” The boy’s smile vanished as he opened his eyes and looked straight at Brian. “My name is **Gabriel ‘Ruby’ Hart,** but please just call me **Gabe.** I’m here to save my big sister, Amy…who you probably know as Amethyst of the Azure Initiative.”

The Teleporter Room fell silent for a full five seconds before a resounding **“WWHHHHAAAATTTTT??!?!?!!”** rang out through the building.

**THE SOCIETY WILL RETURN**


	4. New Blood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The island home is built. Time to move in.

## Tales of the Society - The Azure Age

### Chapter 7.4: New Blood

_ **Last time on Tales of the Society...** _

_The Crimson Society needed to move their base to a safer location, and Brian had the bright idea to build at sea. To this end, Tavo, Tim, and Scafe set out across the vast Nexian ocean to find an island; one that’s large, secure, and verdant enough for the Society to expand their ranks and defend themselves in the face of the Azure Initiative, the Neo Empire, and whatever else the Nexus might throw at them._

_Of course, finding the perfect island is harder than it sounds, especially on the Nexus. All three of the searchers ran into their own difficulties - Tim’s island was far too small, Scafe’s first find was infested with all manner of prehistoric monsters, and Tavo found one that had sand, subterranean horrors, and not much else. Eventually, however, Scafe stumbled upon a winning island, and he wasted no time in calling Brian over. In turn, the spider-bunny immediately set to work drawing up a new home for himself and his friends._

_After roughly a day’s worth of setting foundations and building essential rooms, Brian and Co. returned home… just in time for Eli to introduce the Society’s newest recruits. There were Matt and Hanna (Brian’s younger brother and longtime friend, respectively), Eli’s friend JoJo, and Dante’s girlfriend Zs, but the last newcomer was an anomaly; he’d actually taken the time to call _them_ instead of vice-versa, and he looked oddly familiar despite nobody knowing who he was._

_As it turned out, the answer to everyone’s questions laid in the little goat-boy’s identity: Gabe Hart, younger brother of Amethyst! He wants to join the Society to “save [his] big sister”…but will the victims of her cruelty be willing to assist him?_

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**“WWHHHHAAAATTTTT??!?!?!!”**

The resounding collective yell of shock brought the rest of the Society to the Teleporter Room. “Whoa, where’s the fire?” Dante asked.

After checking to make sure that his ears still worked after being at the epicenter of the shout, Gabe nodded affirmatively. “I know this may seem like a shock, but I’m being completely honest right now: I’m Amethyst’s younger brother, and I need your help to save her.”

“Y-You can’t be for real!” B.Nana gasped. “Amethyst has a little brother?! And he looks _this_ adorable?!” Her eyes went as wide as saucers as she sized up the goatling. “Omigod…_I must pet you!_”

“Um…w-what?” Gabe’s cheeks flushed as he took a reflexive step back from the exuberant banana-woman. However, he promptly bumped into Juliet, who glared down at him with a stern look.

“Well, well…” she said. “Guess brains don’t run in the armless bitch’s family, eh? It’s amazing how you’d be stupid enough to just throw yourself into the enemy. Looking to bait your sister to us…or do you just have a death wish?”

“Hehehe… I’m curious to see what sort of fears lie hidden inside this one.” Zuula clicked in joy, her tentacles swaying as she moved to stand beside Juliet. The leering grin elicited a quiet “meep” from Gabe, who inched away from the Carcanod as Hanna drifted between them.

“That’s enough of that,” he said firmly. “This one means no harm; I can sense his gentle soul.”

“And how can you be so sure?” Juliet raised an eyebrow. “He’s related to that armless whore, so he could be a pretty good liar. For all we know, he could be setting us up for a trap.”

“Would anyone luring us into a trap want to save their family so bad they’d go to their sworn enemies, seeking them out instead of drawing them into the open?” Brian asked, giving his brother an aside glance. “I can empathize with the kid, especially if his sister is acting independently of him.”

“Believe me, she is…” Gabe sighed. “Amy isn’t the most forward-thinking girl on the Nexus; always thinking about the fun she’d have _now_ instead of the trouble she’ll get in _later._ I even warned her against the bombing before, but…she didn’t listen…” He somberly cast his gaze to the floor, fists clenched. “But no matter what, she’s still the only family I’ve got in this world. And I _know_ she’s a good person, deep down…just like I know that she’d never go this bad if not for that chrome-domed _bastard!_” His head jerked up to regard the Society around him, his red eyes flashing with utter fury.

“He’s abusing her; I’ve seen the bruises, and I can see the signs in her senseless actions…she’s not evil, she’s _scared!_” In an instant, his anger evaporated, leaving only earnest desperation. “I _know_ she’s hurt all of you, and I’ll make sure she answers for that. Just…just help me get her out of there before she has something worse than a black eye…_please._”

Silence hung heavily in the room for several seconds before Eli nodded slowly. “Well, that settles it,” he said. “Nobody on Weiss’s payroll would shit-talk him like that…and it _does_ sound like the lead shithead to fuck with not just a woman’s body, but her mind…”

Murmurs of assent went around the group, but Juliet still looked skeptical. “Alright, I’ll give you props for heart and audacity, kid…but here’s the real question: can you pull your weight here? We’re all top-class fighters, and we need all the capable hands we can get to take on the Azures.” 

The question brought a small grin to Gabe’s face as he raised a hand. “Don’t worry, Ms. Kingsley…” With a snap of his fingers, his forearm was covered in a shining silver gauntlet; a second snap produced a large red dodgeball out of thin air. “I think you’ll find I’ve got quite the _sporting_ chance in a fight.” He promptly whirled to the left and hurled the ball at the nearest wall, causing it to ricochet around the room at a blistering speed without actually hitting anyone or anything vital before rebounding to his armored hand.

“Ho-ly…mother of **fuck,**” Tavo breathed.

“What can I say? I got _balls_ to spare~” Gabe smirked at his pun, much to the mixed dismay and approval of the other members, but he promptly demonstrated that his wording wasn’t just for humor. As he spun the ball on his finger, it changed forms between a metal ball, a flaming ball, a high-tech ball, and even a dodgeball-sized explosive before disappearing in a flash of light. “Hey, I had to use my engineering skills _somehow_ once Amy’s arms weren’t available for tinkering, and I get a good workout like this.”

“…Well, he’s got my approval,” Max chimed in from behind the group. “He’s inexperienced, but talented; nothing a little training won’t work out, yeah?” He looked to the other Councilmen, who gave identical nods of assent. “Then we’re all in agreement, **LittleSport**; you’re in. Starting tomorrow, though, you’ll be helping us setup at a new location; that engineering knowhow will probably take a lot of burden off of Brian’s shoulders during the building process.”

“Don’t I know it…” the spider-bunny sighed. “I’m not an architect, so my blueprint-based drawing leaves a lot to be desired…” 

“I can tell; your mansion’s built into the mountain, so you could cut corners.” Gabe nodded, having caught on pretty quickly. “So I’ll focus on helping you chart out this new place; you just build to my spec, and we’re golden~”

“Alright, sounds good. For now, Society, you’re all dismissed!” Brian waved off his friends, with Eli leading the new blood off to their own rooms. Gabe had just rounded the corner when Irene reappeared, her new friend in her arms.

“Sweet kid…too bad about his sis. I hope he can help us deal with her.” Irene gritted her teeth as the memories of Amethyst’s trickery surfaced - those wounds were still all-too-fresh in her mind. “He’s probably going to be the only reason we avoid having a goat-bitch flambé.”

“I hear ya there, Irene…but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.” Brian nodded sagely at the pyromancer’s words. “Tomorrow, we begin on the new island. Once you’ve got a feel for the location on the other side of the Warp Pad, you can help with moving duty; your portals will make it way easier than just carrying everything. With all the Society on the job, our new digs should be done in just a few days~!” Utterly ecstatic at the idea of this new island home, he was barely able to draw himself out of that thought to ask Irene about her new friend. “And what’s this lil’ guy here? Ya pick up a toy or somethin’?” He chuckled as the teddy bear waved at him. “Didn’t expect you to befriend living toys…”

“Yeah…picked him up while I was out and about.” Irene beamed and gave the teddy a small squeeze, causing it to flail its limbs in protest. “Isn’t he just adorable~?”

Brian chuckled again - not just at the teddy’s distress, but also at the sword on its back, dried blood on it belying its use. “Y’know…between the color, the sword, and the apparent attitude…that little guy reminds me a lot of Tsuneo.” He used a spider limb to lightly poke the bear’s nose, causing it to briefly flail even harder. “Alright, Irene, we’ve got a big day tomorrow. Get some rest with your…_NeverTed~_” His chortle turned into a yawn as he walked out the door, leaving Irene to ponder the nickname.

“…NeverTed, huh…has a nice ring to it.” She loosened her grip on the bear to stop its flailing. “You like that name?”

The bear simply looked up at Irene, seemingly indifferent. After a moment, it nodded.

“Alright, then that’s what I’ll call you. For now though, let’s get to bed; _long_ overdue…” With a yawn of her own, Irene portaled over to Tsuneo’s room to help keep watch for the night.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

_The Next Day_

Back on the island, construction was going smoothly, with the entire Society helping in some form or another. Brian was drawing up the walls according to Gabe’s blueprints and specifications, with Tim giving him a much-needed lift for those vertical lines. Scafe, Tavo (with Emperor), Dante, Matt and Zs were all clearcutting the area within the foundation already laid out, helpfully marked by the magic pencil lines Brian had drawn upon returning to his project.

Further away from the base-in-progress, Max was clearing a path down to the first of B.Nana’s many planned farmlands; Emily tilled the fields with B.Nana and Zuula. Hanna and JoJo acted as messengers between the work areas, and Becky did her best to keep the workers cool with cool breezes and the occasional small ice pillar. 

With his injured leg still healing up, Eli was once again standing guard over Tsuneo, who had been transported to the finished Trauma Ward by Irene. With that done, the butterfly-winged woman was working mass transport, dropping the Society’s supplies near the shoreline with the help of her portals. Altogether, work was progressing a mile a minute; the empty shell of a foundation at the start of the day very quickly began shaping up.

“Whew…hot diggedy _damn_, it feels good to get all this work done…” Brian seemed to be in high spirits, having just finished the ground floor. “It’s only…what, noon?…and we’re _this_ far in? Amazing what teamwork can do~”

“Heh… You’ve got quite the draw speed, Sarge…” In the face of the hybrid’s cheer, Gabe couldn’t help but smile in turn. “I’m barely keeping ahead of you with these blueprints. At this rate, you’d get your four-story dream house by the end of the day, and B.Nana will have her first set of crops ready to grow.”

“All the more reason to keep going~!” Brian chimed out, climbing to the second floor and drawing up a megaphone to call out to his friends. “Clear-cutters, you’ve done your part well; now you can work on moving stuff in. I’ve got the main level done - that’s the kitchens and the Rec Room you’ll be worrying about. Keep up the pace - I’ll have the second floor ready to go soon!”

“Roger that, Sarge!” Scafe bellowed back, directing his strong-armed friends to the piles of supplies and furniture Irene had moved in.

With the efficiency of an ant colony, work continued at a brisk pace all throughout the day. As promised, Brian was soon putting the finishing touches on the second floor, mostly consisting of personal hobby rooms - gaming, training and the like - to make a veritable “Fun Deck” for the Society. He finished the third floor even faster still; since it was nothing but dormitories, essentially the same room cloned en masse, his job was much easier once he’d gotten the outer walls set up. When the other Society members had time to spare from their other duties, they came up to begin personalizing their chosen rooms. 

Finally, just as the sun began to set, the spider bunny completed the roof over the fourth floor, the Society’s “Command Center”. Various consoles lay around, waiting to be connected to the facilities Brian had in mind for the island. The War Room was built like the one back at the old base, with the addition of a huge port window overlooking the rest of the island behind the mansion and an island map on the wall for the group to plan expansions later on. Finally, Brian added a landing pad for the _Ruby Revenant_ beneath a retractable portion of the roof before sitting down with a satisfied sigh.

“Whew…good gods… I’ve never been so worn out yet pleased with my work since the last time I got some down time with Em…” Brian put his pencil back in his ear and flexed the fingers of his drawing hand with some satisfying cracks. “Not half bad, eh?”

“_Yeah…_” Zeus agreed. “_...although you _do_ know that Tsuneo’s going to rib the hell out of us for putting a space for the airship, right? He’s got a point about it giving away our position only slightly less than a giant neon sign…_”

“Hey, sometimes you gotta fly in style!” Brian insisted. “We just need to retrofit it with some fancy cloaking tech or something…”

“And sometimes you gotta not give away the position of our island with a blazing red ship docked on top of it.” Juliet snarked as she walked up behind Brian, having already set up her room to her liking.

“Uhh, hello?” Brian raised an eyebrow. “Did you not notice the _retractable panels_ over the hangar? The _Ruby Revenant_’s gonna be impossible to detect once we’ve given it some stealth upgrades!”

“Alright, I’ll give you that one…” Juliet conceded, “…but it’s still not gonna fit up there unless you give the ship paper-folding capabilities too.”

“_Oooh hoo hoo hoo...that’s where you’re wrong,_” Zeus snickered. “_We thought ahead and rigged the landing pad to be bigger on the inside~ For once, I’ve got to thank Tavo for his incessant raving about the…‘Retardis’ or whatever-_”

“HEY!” At that exact moment, Tavo himself burst onto the scene, looking quite irate. “It’s called a _TARDIS_, you ignorant fuck!” In an instant, his mood did a complete 180 as he surveyed the floor. “But seriously, this is more incredible than fucking Megadeth when Dave Mustaine isn’t drunk, Brian!”

The hybrid Councilman rubbed the back of his head at Tavo’s enthusiastic praise. “Aah…well, I can’t take all the credit. You guys all pulled your weight and did your share of work - without you, I’d still be trying to get the first floor done!”

“_Still, that’s just the beginning of what we’re planning for this island…_” Zeus added. “_This is where we live, and where we do basic things… Tomorrow, we can get to work on the facilities…the places we can build to specialize in whatever we wish._”

“True that…” Brian stood up and pressed a button on the wall beside him, activating an intercom that could be heard across the work site. “Ten hut, Society folk! Great work today; we now have a place to call our own. This will be our bastion against the Azure Initiative’s fuckery and the Nexus’s general craziness; **Tide’s Bastion!**” He paused to mentally praise himself for the name he’d given the island. “Tomorrow, we begin facility construction - if you have any suggestions or requests, bring them up here. Aside from that, I’ve got plenty of ideas to put forth for the time being. Irene, make sure you’re rested and ready - you’re going to be _busy_ tomorrow~”

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

_The _Next_ Next Day_

The sun was just barely peeking over the horizon as Brian led a small group of Society members out of the teleporter on their new island; he wanted to get an early start, in hopes of accomplishing everything he wanted to do today.

“Alright, Irene…see those mountain ranges across the island? Put SAM sites _all over_ those bitches. Make sure nothing short of a giant god finger can penetrate the wall of anti-air artillery.”

Irene nodded, a gleam of mischief in her eye as Zeus took up the orders. “_And once _that’s_ done… Put enough depth charges in the water to make a ‘Great Wall of KABOOM’ a quarter-mile out of the island._”

Irene’s grin nearly split her face in half as Brian chuckled to himself. “Yeah… We figured you’d want a chance to go crazy after recent events, so we thought this would be a productive outlet for your…_explosive_ personality…in a way that helps protect everyone. Do us proud, Fire Queen~” The words had barely left his mouth before Irene all but pirouetted into a portal, cackling with manic euphoria.

“Ahh…Never change, Irene…” Shaking his head warmly, Brian turned to the other Society members assembled behind him. “Max, you ready? You’re on road duty. Gabe, Scafe, we’ve got building to do… We’ll focus on essentials for today; there’s no shortage of land, so we can add plenty of stuff later on.”

With a resounding cry of “Yes sir!”, the indicated members all took off eastward from the mansion, leaving Brian to grab his communicator.

“Juliet,” he said, “get those consoles set up, just like I told ya to. The sooner we can get a control center going for everything, the better.”

“10-4, Spider-Legs,” Juliet replied. “Have fun building Rome.” 

With that, the Society found their first new plot of land, Gabe unrolling a blueprint labeled “Training Facility” as they stopped. “Basically, it’s like a giant outdoor gym,” he explained. “The centerpiece is an enclosed arena, hooked up to an adaptive terminal…this will do wonders for me! And being so close to the mansion should encourage pretty regular use.”

The goatling smiled to himself, quickly sectioning off the land as Brian worked on the outer perimeter. Max headed back the way they came, using his earth-rending powers to loosen the ground as the first step of a road.

The facilities took much less time than the mansion, being single-floor affairs instead of the quad-decker of last night. The quartet of Society members quickly blazed through the facilities they had to build: Training grounds to keep sharp, a Warehouse to store B.Nana’s excess crops, R&D labs to keep ideas circulating within the Society, even a Weather Control device in the center of the island itself to mitigate Nexian weather patterns (unsettled at best, outright supernatural at worst). Everything was connected by flat gravel roads; Max had taken the time to ensure that they wouldn’t look out of place in their surroundings while still being visible enough to keep cohesive pathing around their neck of the woods.

“Aaaaand…done!” Brian laughed as he finished the generator for the Weather Machine. “This island is now a paradise, built by and for the Crimson Society. Great weather, great opportunities to work together, and a kickass pad to relax.” He smiled smugly as he stepped back to regard his handiwork. “If Weiss could see us right now, he’d grow some hair just so he could rip it out of his scalp~”

“_And just in time too,_” Zeus added. “_Looks like Irene’s just finished her work._” He indicated the woman dropping out of a portal beside them, looking exhausted but elated.

“Well…that took a while…but it’s done,” she panted. “This island’s…got enough firepower…to handle anything…short of a _literal_…act of god.” Her wings flashed yellow as she thought about all the explosive ordinance she’d rigged around the perimeter.

“Then let’s add ‘well-defended’ to the list of perks…” Brian grinned as he called his friend at the mansion. “Juliet, are all the connections ready?”

“Ready and waiting, boys.” Juliet smiled to herself, looking over the active terminals.

“Good…then let’s give it a test run. Give us a cooldown drizzle, Jules.”

With a silent affirmation to Brian’s order, Juliet punched the command into the Weather Machine’s control console. In moments, the night sky clouded over as a light drizzle of rain overtook the whole island, slowly lowering the temperature of the sunbaked lands. Brian and Irene both gave a pleased sigh as rest of the Society walked up to observe this phenomenon. 

“Yoooo…you literally control the _weather_ here now?” Dante gawked for a moment as the refreshing cool spread a wave of relief amid the Society. 

“My my, Brian… You certainly thought of everything.” Even Tim seemed impressed by all this work. “And to think, just two days ago…we were living out of an exploded hovel of a base. To have this paradise all around us…built by our own hands, no less…” He trailed off, seemingly lost in thought at the scale of the group’s accomplishment.

“Makes you feel right proud, don’t it?” Eli smiled from the back of the group, flexing his left leg unconsciously - his previous injury had finally healed up earlier in the day. “Can’t wait to take a good jog around this place now that I gotta break this leg back in.”

“Don’t break it _too_ hard, Eels.” JoJo spoke only half-jokingly. “If what you told us the day before last is true, we’ve still got a handful of ex-members with a grudge to deal with.”

“Oh…right.” Brian sighed, having nearly forgotten all about the Azure Initiative with all the efforts of the past two days. “Eli, how’s Tsuneo doing? We’re gonna need to bring him up to speed before we take the fight to Weiss and Co.”

The chinchilla’s ears drooped slightly. “He’s still out cold…but he looks calmer now. Tim figures he’ll be up and about by tomorrow, minus one crazy demon motherfucker.”

“‘Bout time too!” Emily cried. “If he had to snooze much longer, I’d probably suggest that we go wreck the Azures ourselves and claim that he slept right through it!” Despite her boisterous words, her relief was evident.

“That settles it then.” Max nodded. “Once our last friend’s back on his feet, we give Cipher a call and get to work. I don’t know what Purgatory’s ‘Cathedral’ is, but I’d bet my mask that Weiss is putting all his chips on it.”

“A likely guess,” Hanna nodded. “From the sound of it, the Azure Initiative’s story is nearing its climax; I look forward to bringing it to its end.”

“Don’t we all…” Scafe looked to each member in turn with a look of determination. “Starting tomorrow, I want everyone to be on high alert; battle ready and deployable at a minute’s notice. Once Tsuneo’s up, our location’s set, and our boots are on the ground, we’re taking down their ‘Cathedral’ - and, best-case scenario, Purgatory with it. We’ll stop the Azures here and now, before anyone else on this Nexus has to suffer another attack!”

The draconic Councilman’s speech was punctuated with a collective shout from the rest of the Society before they went to check out the rest of Brian’s handiwork. The man of the hour himself went straight to his room, eager to finally get some rest.

“To think, Zeus…all of this…we did all this in less than a week…and to top it off, our troubles with the Initiative are almost over.” Brian let that thought roll through his head as he laid down on his bed. “Once we finish this last assault, we can finally rest easy- OW!” He sat up reflexively after his palm made a resounding impact with his face. “What the hell was that for?!”

“_If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a hundred times…STOP. TEMPTING. FATE!!!_” Zeus snarled even as his host gave him his best stinkeye. “_I don’t care _how_ close we are; it’s not done ‘til it’s done. Apart from Purgatory, Weiss still has Saturn, Quantum, 1:30, and Amethyst - the last of whom we now have to worry about taking _alive,_ thanks to Gabe - and there’s no telling what toys his fascist brother might send him in the meantime…_”

“Alright, I _get_ it! For fuck’s sake…” Brian sighed wearily as he flopped back into bed, grumbling childishly to himself. “Can’t enjoy anything, even in my own _house…_”

“_Look…_” Zeus took a breath before continuing in a calmer tone. “_…What we’ve built in so short a time is frankly incredible, and it was all _your_ idea in the first place - you _should_ be proud of it all. I’m just saying that we should save the fanfare for _after_ we’ve wiped the Nexus with Weiss’s smug-ass face and made damn sure that his whole stupid Initiative is out of our collective hair for good._”

“…Yeah, yeah…you’re right…” Brian yawned, his eyelids starting to get heavy as his excitement finally gave way to fatigue. “We shouldn’t get ahead of ourselves here… Just take it one…step…at a time…”

With that, the spider-bunny conked out entirely, snoring peacefully in his new abode.

**-THE SOCIETY WILL RETURN-**


	5. We Rise Again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's no way the Society's plans can be derailed now... right?

## Tales of the Society - The Azure Age

### Chapter 7 Epilogue: We Rise Again

_ **Last time on Tales of the Society...** _

_Introducing yourself as a sibling of an Azure Initiative member isn’t exactly the best way to start your time as a member of the Crimson Society, but that’s exactly how our heroes were introduced to Gabe “Ruby” Hart. In the face of (not unjustified) skepticism and hostility, he expressed his belief that his big sister, Amethyst, wasn’t so much evil as she was short-sighted, hedonistic, and misled/abused by her boyfriend, Weiss; thus, he sought to save her from her situation before it got any worse. Seeing the young goat’s conviction (as well as his impressive skill with self-constructed gauntlets and dodgeballs), the Society decided to give him a chance._

_Gabe’s engineering talents were soon put to use as he joined the rest of the group in colonizing their new island, building a new base from the ground up. They spared no expense (figuratively) on their headquarters, putting in all the essentials to make it secure, sustainable, secretive, and seriously comfortable. Better yet, Irene finally rejoined her friends (with the newly-christened “NeverTed” in tow), Eli’s injured leg was healed, and Tsuneo showed signs of recovery; Tim predicted that the undead swordsman would be up and about the very next morning._

_With their new pad up and running, their numbers bolstered, and their morale near its peak, the Crimson Society is ready to finally take the fight to the Azure Initiative, starting with the mysterious ‘Cathedral’ that Cipher warned them about. There’s no way their plans could derail now…_

_…right?_

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

_2 AM, Neo-Tokyo_

The Scramble Square of Shibuya’s 109 building was pristine and silent…but not for long. A cacophonic buzzing filled the air as a black cloud appeared over the square, circling independently of the quiet night breeze. Had anyone been awake to see it, they might’ve seen a lone figure in the heart of the cloud, dropping large globs of flesh on the ground at regular intervals.

“There’s only one way to make sure he’s safe…and that’s to capture him myself…to spirit him away from the Initiative’s eyes…but we have to draw him here first…” The rasping female voice was barely audible over the buzzing. “This will do, I would imagine……yes, yes. It’s finally time…_for our homecoming~_”

A dry cackle echoed over the silent streets as the cloud of blackness descended on the square, spreading out in all directions.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

_7:00 AM, Tide’s Bastion_

Brian awoke not to the warmth of the morning sun on his face, but rather the shrill scream of a distant alarm.

_Wha…that sounds like…?! Aaah, fignuts! What the hell happened?!_ Shaking off his lingering grogginess, Brian scrambled out of bed and ran to the War Room as quickly as his legs could move. Several other members had beaten him there; still more came in behind him as their War Table projected recent media broadcasts.

“What the hell is-” Matt’s question was silenced by Max, who merely gestured at the holographic screens at the center of the table. All the Nexus’s news channels seemed to be covering the same story: a disturbance in Neo-Tokyo, the planet’s main economic hub.

“_Here on the scene, our choppers have visual of what looks like a giant tumorous growth in the center of Shibuya-</i>”_

_“_-this ghastly pile of living tissue seems to have just grown in overnight, completely blocking up the Scramble Crossing. Preliminary reports are sketchy, but they seem to confirm that it __absorbed__ everything in its path-_” _

_“_Whatever this thing is, it’s causing plenty of problems for the morning traffic, and witnesses claim to have seen it ‘pulsing’ like a living creature. Who knows what could be growing within-_”_

As the Society watched, every channel showed the fleshy pile sitting in the open, looking very much like a pulsating tumor. Suddenly, the mass gave a particularly violent twitch, opening up several tears and holes all over its surface; an instant later, black clouds seemed to pour out of every orifice. Amid the screams filling every channel at once, the group heard a horribly familiar buzzing before Juliet slammed the mute button with a scowl.

“God fucking DAMMIT!” she yelled. “Cipher’s got some explaining to do if this is his idea of trying to catch us with our pants down! Not cool!”

“Easy, Juliet,” Tim chided. “Let’s consider the details of this attack… Something of this scale…no signs of other Initiative involvement…do you think this was an independent action on Saturn’s part? Even Weiss wouldn’t know about it in that case, so Cipher wouldn’t have predicted it either…”

“Either way, this is not good…” Max shook his head, watching pale fleshy spires rise out of the emptied pores like towers. “We can’t just let Saturn have free run of the town; many more Nexians will die if we don’t go in and put a stop to her nonsense…”

The rest of the Society nodded, save Scafe, who glanced at Becky in concern. His girlfriend seemed to be in a daze, her eyes locked on the holographic images of the wasps swarming the town square and expanding their macabre hive by the second. “…Y’okay, Bex?” he asked quietly.

“H-huh…?!” The redheaded cryomancer jumped in her seat before turning to Scafe with a wide, forced grin. “Oh, m-me? I’m fine! Just rarin’ to go and freeze that bitch solid…along w-with every last one…of her…_w-w-wasps_…” Her laugh sounded more like a whimper as she eyed the screens from the edge of her peripheral vision.

“What’s this I hear?” Zuula clicked, sounding a bit too pleased as she turned to regard Becky. “Is our resident ice queen scared of a few _stings_~?”

“Zuula, not everyone is so fearless as you, so would you kindly knock it off?” Scafe paused in his attempt to comfort Becky to shoot a very nasty glare at the tentacled woman.

“My apologies, Scafe.” Despite her grin not shrinking an inch, the Carcanod sounded sincere enough. “It’s hard for me to ignore the revelation of a new fear, even among friends - rest assured, Becky, I will do all in my power to stop those insects from making your fears a reality.”

“Kinda funny about that,” Eli piped up. “Saturn and her wasps can’t stand the cold, so Becky’s assistance would be invaluable if not for that crippling fear.”

“Honestly, I’m more than a bit leery about this one myself,” Irene frowned. “If Brian’s information’s right, there’s nothing I can do about those winged hellions; they’re not just _immune_ to fire, chemical and radiation damage, they can absorb them to become even _more_ problematic…It’s like she was built just to fuck with me.”

The Councilmen exchanged looks at Irene’s comment. “Uhh…speaking of which…” Brian began with a hint of nervousness. “Irene, it…_miiiight_ be a good idea if you sit this one out then, if nothing’s gonna work in terms of your powers…”

“Not a _chance_, Bunny Butt,” Irene interrupted. “I’ve picked up a few tricks during my absence, and you’ll need help dealing with all the injuries those wasps are going to be giving you. If nothing else, I can portal people out of harm’s way… But I can also do this!” She portaled over to Brian and grabbed the hand with Zeus’s mouth. To the hybrid’s shock, his skin and flesh quickly sealed up over the fangs; in seconds, the hand looked pristine, as if Zeus never manifested on it. In response, the Parasite manifested the mouth on Brian’s other hand, sounding both irritated and shocked as he reviewed her handiwork.

“_Well, that was_ rude…b_ut if that means you’re able to seal up wounds and heal them rapidly, that’d be too useful to pass up right now._” Brian nodded in agreement with Zeus, prompting Irene to scratch the back of her head as she returned to her seat; nearby, Hanna rubbed his chin with a quietly intrigued hum.

“Just be warned, I’ve only just come into this power, so I’m still gonna be working out what all I can do.” The butterfly-winged woman’s gaze returned to the display of Neo-Tokyo; clouds of wasps were dragging some bodies back to the growing mass of flesh, which seemed to be burrowing tunnels into the 109’s walls. “So, what exactly _is_ our plan for attacking the walking bug’s nest? I don’t think we’ll be able to sneak up on her with those wasps swarming all over the place…”

“Teleportation is out,” Gabe said immediately. “If I heard the orientation tour right, the Warp Pads aren’t precise enough without an exit point, and the last thing we want is to be separated inside the wasp nest.”

“Well, whatever we do, we’d better make it fast!” Emily cried. “The longer we wait, the more time Saturn has to overrun the place with her freaky ‘kids’ and her stupid Stephanie Meyer flyers!” She glanced around to see a few Society members regarding her with confusion. “…I’m just _assuming_ that she has a stash of Stephanie Meyer flyers, okay?”

“Wait a minute,” Matt began, turning to his older brother. “Brian, didn’t you say that you guys have an airship? Why can’t we just fly that over to Neo-Tokyo?”

“Ah-HA!” Brian pumped his fist at Matt’s suggestion. “I knew that putting in that landing pad for the _Ruby Revenant_ was a good idea!”

“And I maintain that Saturn will see that eyesore coming from a continent away.” The familiar modulated voice made everyone turn to look at the entrance of the War Room - sure enough, their last member was standing in the doorway, his body, mind, and strength finally restored. “Nice place, by the way…you actually took your time, bro?”

“OH **FUCK** OFF!” Brian thundered, jumping to his feet. “Fat load of good you did to help us set this place up!” Despite his apparent fury, he couldn’t hide his smile.

“_Nice to see you back on your feet, Tsuneo,_” Zeus added belatedly.

“Sorry about having a **big honking hole** in my chest, _sir_.” Tsuneo’s grin was completely audible in that one sentence despite the heavy wording. “So…what’d I miss?”

The undead warrior’s query had the Society looking around at each other. This would take a while; time they might not be able to spare, with Saturn making her move…

_ **-**_ **T** **HE SOCIETY WILL RETURN** _**-** _

**Author's Note:**

> Nice meltdown there, Irene. You are a godsdamn lunatic.
> 
> I am LadyIrene #2020 on Discord and Insanity_Lady on Twitter.


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